Squeaky wheel gets some grease

Before my June 22 column on Gene 'Squeaky' Melchiorre was published, someone asked me to assess public sentiment on the issue of Bradley retiring his basketball jersey. I guessed 65, maybe 70 percent might favor.

Well, as of 6 p.m. Thursday, more than 1,100 votes had been cast this week in our online poll, and 95 percent said they want to see No. 23 on the Carver Arena wall.

I know from talking to them that the people who are pushing for this are a passionate lot. Their unity, organization and sense of purpose would make the Obama campaign proud. But 95 percent is a whopping number, even for a get-out-the-vote effort.

I still think a scientific poll, which this clearly was not, probably would indicate something more like 70 percent support.

Regardless, it's clear public sentiment has changed since 1951, when news of the point-shaving scandal broke and put Melchiorre's fledgling sporting goods store here out of business.

2. Omaha or bust?

Bold talk carried the day when Elvis Dominguez was introduced Tuesday as Bradley's new baseball coach.

'I don't want to be standing in Peoria in June,' Dominguez said. The unmistakable message was that he expects the Braves to qualify for NCAA tournament play, something they haven't accomplished since 1968.

President Joanne Glasser was even more emphatic — and confident.

'We are going to Omaha,' Glasser said, and I'm pretty sure she didn't mean for the every-other-season visit to Missouri Valley rival Creighton. She was talking College World Series, in which Bradley last appeared in 1956.

3. War of wordsmiths

The rift between Chicago Sun-Times sports columnist Jay Mariotti and Just About Every Other Sports Journalist In The City rumbled into public view again this month.

Mariotti, a notorious bomb-thrower who largely avoids facing his targets before or after he launches, boasted in a column that he is the only journalist in Chicago willing to criticize White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen. Mariotti called out 'soft colleagues' for fearing the wrath of Oz or Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf or both.

According to reports in the rival Tribune, Mariotti's fellow Sun-Times columnist Rick Telander, a Peoria native, twice attempted to respond in columns that were spiked by Sun-Times management. So Telander approached Mariotti at Wrigley Field last weekend, reportedly asking, 'Can we talk?'

Mariotti evidently felt threatened by this simple request for actual face-to-face conversation, because he requested security to protect him. His request was denied. His nose remains intact, though.

The pressbox is atwitter, watching for the next potential episode this weekend at The Cell, where the Sox rematch with the Cubs and Mariotti seeks literary asylum.

4. Renaming Wrigley

Sam Zell, CEO of Tribune Co., which owns the Chicago Cubs, is honking off baseball fans and preservationists everywhere with his announced intent to consider selling naming rights to Wrigley Field.

The horror!

Of course, a petition drive to stop the evil Zell has begun on a Web site called SaveOurName.com.

But it's legal, and it's the American way. If you don't like it, don't buy tickets; stay home in protest.

I'll bet you won't do that, though. So will Sam.

5. A real drag race

Sounds like they'll be having a grand time Saturday evening at the East Peoria Boat Club, 707 Collins Lane. This is where the annual Miss River Bottom pageant is scheduled to begin at 5 p.m. Admission is free.

Here's the deal. Eleven contestants will compete in evening-gown, swimsuit and talent. They're from as far south as Springfield and as far north as Starved Rock.

And they're all men.

KIRK WESSLER is Journal Star executive sports editor/columnist. He can be reached at kwessler@pjstar.com, or 686-3216.

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